Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This is my 3rd system. I have a 30 gallon tank that I plan on using as a fingerling tank. I wanted to start experimenting with smaller tanks so I can start encouraging friends and family to start learning about aquaponics. Not everyone has the room to have an aquaponics setup, but they may have room for a fish tank.

I have two 5' 4" pvc tubes with 6 grow pots each. I'm really lucky with having a basement with a low ceiling as I can suspend everything with hooks and chains instead of building support frames.





I have a standard 30 gallon fish filter to help get things started and assist in bio filtration. I built a prototype bio filter / solids separator out of a soda bottle and 2 gatorade bottles. I'll post more in detail about this if it actually works. My plan is to begin testing this once I get some more soda bottles to seal off the ends of the pvc tubes.

Nice! I am still convincing my better half that we need a second system...

@Ronmaggi - If you come up with a way to convince your better half, make sure to post your solution as it's own topic thread. I think a lot of us here could use it. LOL

My solution is it's in the basement/cellar and out of sight.

Beware, while that light may seem plenty bright for the two NFT tubes, it really may not be enough light for good growth. Florescent grow lights need to be very close to the leaves of the plants.

Yeah, lighting is always going to be the biggest issue with this location. I was looking at other lighting alternatives but they are really out of my budget. I'll move the lights closer to the plants once the system has been cycled.

If you or anyone has any suggestions for my lighting system, they would be greatly appreciated.

With the T-5 tubes, I would probably just suggest more of them for this particular application. Perhaps if you can space things with one light tube over each pipe or perhaps even better have three light tubes one between and one on either side. Or if you are going to grow more than just a little baby lettuce in there perhaps you want 5 light tubes. Space the pipes out a little and put a light down the middle between them and a light on either side and then have a light directly over the pipes that you can raise up as the plants grow. Make them all a bit adjustable and swap in the more red tone tubes if you want to grow fruiting plants.

Of course watt for watt to light a space to grow plants indoors, I don't think anyone has found anything more effective than Metal Halide but you do need a bit of head space for that since the high intensity discharge lighting is placed further away from the plants but it has better light penetration through a canopy to reach lower leaves and allows you to grow larger plants.

As I have really not done much indoor growing in the past 6 years I would recommend getting more details from some one with more experience with indoor growing. I only ever really grew baby lettuce under the florescent lighting.

Florescent light tubes need to be replaced about every six months to continue providing good plant available light so be sure you have other fixtures that take the same size tubes so you can continue using them for non plant growing purposes since they will still seem just as bright to the human eye.

I am having lighting issues on my original system and that was using a 4 tube T5 HO light system. I bought an LED to try out on that and will see how it goes. I wanted to avoid the HPS route due to the start up costs and heat output. My future plan is to move everything outside in a green house and avoid having to worry about lighting which is a big pain in the but.

My plan for this system is to grow some herbs (Basil, Mint, Garlic). I'll see how they perform with the current setup and go from there.